The present invention relates to the process of removing meat from the bones of poultry, particularly chicken, by manually carving the meat away from the bones. In particular, the invention relates to apparatus for supporting the poultry carcass in an upright position in a manner in which the poultry may be rigidly supported and may be selectively positioned for carving.
Heretofore, arrangements have been proposed for conveying and processing chicken such as by overhead shackle-type conveyors as shown generally in U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,785. However, the problem arises that the chicken is not suitably mounted for carving of the meat away from the bones since the chicken is in a relatively unstable position swinging overhead from the shackles.
Other prior systems proposed for the deboning of chicken include that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,050 wherein a poultry carcass is conveyed horizontally and a plurality of water jets are utilized to separate the meat from the carcass. Of course, this requires a rather complicated system and the conveyor does not present the poultry in a satisfactory configuration for manual deboning nor is the poultry carcass suitably stabilized and supported for carving.
While other arrangements have been proposed for processing and conveying of other articles, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,181,228, 1,749,224, and British Pat. No. 1,008,772, these arrangements are not suitably stable as conveyors and supports for supporting a weighty poultry carcass during carving. For the efficient mass production of boned chicken, the poultry carcass must be rigidly supported for carving and be selectively positionable on the support to facilitate the carving, all of which must be done on a stable but traveling platform.
Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to provide chicken conveyor and deboning apparatus on which chicken may be deboned in a highly efficient and productive manner in mass.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for the deboning of chicken in which the chicken is rigidly but selectively supported and positioned while being stably conveyed during carving.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for deboning chicken which accommodates a wide variety of poultry carcass sizes and rigidly supports the carcass in a stable upright, vertical position during carving.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a chicken deboning conveyor which utilizes a stabilized traveling conveyor platform on which spaced poultry deboning horns are rigidly attached whereby the poultry is rigidly supported and conveyed for carving.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a poultry deboning apparatus which includes a novel poultry deboning horn contoured to reliably and rigidly support a poultry carcass while permitting selective rotation of the carcass thereon for carving.